THE NARRATIVE COMING OUT OF WASHINGTON THAT VENEZUELA IS SOMETING LESS THAN DEMOCRATIC

We can’t use the same metric to judge a government that is under siege and has faced a “disloyal opposition” -- with powerful resources and domestic and external allies and which for nearly 2 decades has been planning and carrying out illegal actions -- as we do a government in a normal democratic setting. For instance, the calling of the Constituent Assembly (ANC) has to be contextualized. It came in response to four months of demonstrations in 2017 in which some of the protesters organized in paramilitary formations and the leaders, such a Henrique Capriles, were obviously aiming for a repetition of tactics employed on April 11, 2002 with a march to the center of Caracas. Furthermore, I believe that any analysis of the shortcomings of Venezuelan democracy has to point out that shortcomings of a similar nature exist here in the U.S. Nancy Pelosi, for instance, just pointed out that the Democrats need to win by a significant majority in 2020 because otherwise Trump will not recognize the results. In other words, there is a real fear of electoral fraud, which has been well documented at the state level. In Venezuela electoral fraud – as defined by votes not getting counted or voting not being secret – does not exist.